'In the Heart of the Sea': Ron Howard's 'Moby-Dick' Story Sinks

It's been 20 years since director Ron Howard made Apollo 13. In some ways, his latest film feels like a spiritual follow-up to that survival story. But while it is based on a true story of staying alive amidst treacherous terrain, In the Heart of the Sea (out December 11) has none of the triumphant spirit of Howard's space adventure. If Apollo 13 celebrated the ingenuity and smarts of a few brave men, then this maritime drama acknowledges that sometimes those qualities aren't enough to guarantee a happy ending.

(Medium spoilers ahead.)

Based on Nathaniel Philbrick's acclaimed nonfiction book In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, the film is powered by a rich premise: That the events chronicled in Moby-Dick were inspired by a real encounter with a mammoth whale by a Massachusetts hunting expedition in the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, In the Heart of the Sea tells that story using the creaky framing device of having Moby-Dick author Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw) visit Tom Nickerson (Brendan Gleeson) at his home in 1850 to discuss the ocean disaster he barely survived as a young man. Nickerson has never breathed a word about it since, but Melville is insistent, looking for material for what will become his greatest novel. Reluctantly, Nickerson begins to tell his tale.

Warner Bros.

The movie then flashes back to 1820. Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth, who Howard also directed in the underrated 2013 car racing drama Rush) is a strapping, seafaring commoner who has been promised command of his own whaling vessel, but he soon discovers that he will instead serve as first mate to George Pollard (Benjamin Walker), who doesn't have a tenth of Chase's nautical experience but comes from a wealthy, powerful New England family. (Say this for him: Pollard lacks the obsessive single-mindedness of the fictional Captain Ahab, who seems to have been imaged by Herman Melville and not based on real events.) Resentful of Pollard's promotion but determined to ensure a successful hunt, Chase butts heads with the captain, who knows that his crew respects Chase more than him.

Pollard and his crew have a bountiful whale hunt, which Howard films with an unapologetic immediacy. (Forewarning: Those who are squeamish about thinning whale populations and unscrupulous whaling practices won't like the movie's matter-of-fact, pulse-pounding hunting sequences.) But give the filmmaker some credit for documenting a crucial industry of the time without the judgment of modern eyes—whale oil was a major power source in the days before electricity and underground drilling for crude oil. Besides, In the Heart of the Sea soon suggests an almost cosmic comeuppance for its characters' violent engagement with nature. The movie's centerpiece is its epic clash between a monster whale—bigger than any the men have ever seen—and the poor Essex, which doesn't stand a chance.

Warner Bros.

In the Heart of the Sea is roughly divided into two sections, and it's telling that the studio's marketing has focused on this thrilling, action-packed first section. Howard and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle give these early scenes a combustible rush, although, like a lot of big event movies, In the Heart of the Sea suffers from a fundamental fakeness. No matter how seamless or lifelike the CG may be, we know it's not real because these sweeping scenes could be executed only with the help of a computer. That said, the transfixing phoniness makes the film feel otherworldly, as if the sailors are at war with the whale, the stormy seas, and Mother Nature herself.

From there, In the Heart of the Sea shifts gears radically and intriguingly. With most of the crew killed and their ship smashed to bits, Chase, Pollard and a handful of others try to stay alive in lifeboats in the middle of the ocean, their rations rapidly shrinking. The film's energy seeps away, replaced by a grave, almost meditative tone once the characters come to grips with their bleak chances of survival. The contrast is striking and intentional. Howard makes us feel these people's agony as they drift aimlessly, the discovery of an island only proving, paradoxically, to be its own sort of death sentence. Eventually, we will learn why Nickerson has never wanted to relive the story.

Like many of Sea's whalers, this movie doesn't make it home alive.

Much like Rush, In the Heart of the Sea finds Howard pushing back at the notion that he specializes in feel-good sentiment. But like many of Sea's whalers, this movie doesn't make it home alive.

Howard's Rush circumvented sports-drama conventions, portraying its two Formula One racers as insanely competitive, hopelessly stunted men who wanted to beat each other but, in the process, ended up forging a bond that only they understood. (The movie never showed its hand about which of the men we should be rooting for, eschewing easy categorizations of good guys and bad guys.) Here, out on the open sea, Howard again toys with genre, telling a true story of adventure and survival without offering the sort of comforting resolution we might expect from him. (Even Howard's paranoid abduction thriller Ransom ended up relatively happily.)

But where Chase and Pollard could have produced another nuanced mano-a-mano portrait, these characters are never defined beyond broad brushstrokes. Their superficial conflicts and differing social standings quickly melt away once they do battle with the great whale, but Hemsworth and Walker seem swallowed up by the effects work, the human center to this survival tale practically nullified.

In the Heart of the Sea may be a novel addition to Howard's filmography, one with plenty of nice touches and the occasional gentle narrative irony. But oddly, it's a movie about a life-or-death struggle that doesn't feel particularly harrowing. As opposed to Rush's refusal to provide clear-cut heroes and villains, this muted drama never really locates the souls of its characters so that we get invested in their fate. This story has haunted Nickerson his entire life, but you'll be able to shake it off pretty easily.

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